Gold for NZL at 2015 Rio Test Event

Gold for NZL at 2015 Rio Test Event, another Medal hope tomorrow

One year out from the Olympic Games, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have won the Gold medal at 2015 Rio Test Event easily securing victory with a 4th in today’s 49er medal race.

New Zealand’s 49erFX crew of Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech have finished just outside the medals in 4th overall, while tomorrow Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie will go into the Women’s 470 medal race lying 3rd overall.

49er

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke took 49er gold today in front of a beach crowd at the Olympic sailing venue on Guanabara Bay. In today’s medal race they played a conservative game plan covering the only crew with the potential to steal the overall win from them.

Burling and Tuke have totally dominated the Olympic 49er class over the past twelve months, and indeed the past three years, with an unprecedented string of consecutive victories. Burling and Tuke have now won 20 major events in succession. No other 49er sailor has ever been unbeaten for 12 months, let alone three years.

Today they’ve stamped it home once again. Significantly this victory is on the Olympic Games race track and they remain the crew to beat at the one year to go mark.

Tuke, talking after returning ashore says, “It feels great. You know, it’s a really big objective for us one year out from the Games and we’ve put a lot of emphasis on this this year.”

“We’re really happy and it puts us in a good place going into next year.”

The regatta started a week ago and Burling describes how it’s gone, “Obviously this is great practice for us trying to test everything for next year.”

“We started off pretty solid, not fantastic, but we just got better during the week. We had a pretty big lead going into today but it was mathematically possible for them to beat us so [today] we stuck with the Austrians who were right next to us.”

2015 Rio Test Event mimics the format for next year’s Olympic sailing regatta and as such, a focus is to learn as much as possible and put that knowledge to use.

Tuke says, “This week has been really great practice for us. There are 20 boats like we’ll be racing in next year with one boat from each country which isn’t what we normally have at other regattas. That’s been really good for us.”

“We’ve learnt a lot this week, not just from the results but a lot of other things and we’re happy with how it’s played out over the last three weeks in Rio.”

49erFX

Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech have wrapped up the regatta in 4th overall. The kiwi skiff women sailed a strong medal race today to take 3rd place on the water, but it wasn’t enough for them to grab a place on the podium.

Maloney, 23 years and Meech, 22 haven’t finished outside the top ten at all the major international regattas this year with a silver medal at ISAF Sailing World Cup Weymouth in June. Later this year they head to Buenos Aires, Argentina for the 49erFX World Championships in November.

Women’s 470

At the end of the penultimate day of their regatta Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie are on track for a podium finish. The Women’s 470 fleet managed only one race late in the day in Rio, but Aleh and Powrie scored another solid keeper result with a 3rd place.

Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark (GBR) have the lead on 23 points, Anne Haeger and Briana Provancha are in 2nd on 28 points. The kiwis are another 16 points adrift which makes improving tomorrow a big challenge.

Nacra 17

Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders wait another day for their medal race, which is bumped into tomorrow’s schedule after a delayed start on the medal race course today.

The kiwi Nacra 17 crew go into the final double points race in 6th overall, five points off a top five finish.

Finn

The Finn fleet were the first to get underway today fortunate to be allocated a course area which provided enough wind for two races to be completed. Josh Junior started the day with a 2nd place, with a 13th place in the next.

25 year old Junior progresses into the Finn medal race, scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, lying 5th overall.

Laser

Yesterday was a day of mixed fortunes for Andy Maloney in the Laser fleet posting a 2nd to start the day strongly. Unfortunately the 25 year old from Murrays Bay Sailing Club wasn’t able to replicate that in the second race of the day and he was edged out into 11th and didn’t sail today’s Laser medal race.

“A solid 2nd in race one yesterday was completely undone with a shocker in the final race. Very disappointed to end the event with my worst race and drop out of contention,” reflects Maloney.

“On the positive side, I am beginning to feel really comfortable in the Rio sailing conditions after this stint, which gives me some good confidence moving forwards at this awesome venue. Time to learn from it all, and make gains.”

Men’s 470

Men’s 470 pair Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox were back on the water today sailing one race in which they placed 13th. They conclude the regatta in 20th overall.

2015 Rio Test Event, Rio de Janeiro
The NZL Sailing Team final results

1stPeter Burling and Blair Tuke - 49er
4thAlexandra Maloney and Molly Meech - 49erFX
11thAndy Maloney – Laser

The NZL Sailing Team current standings
3rdJo Aleh and Polly Powrie - Women’s 470 (4, 12, 5, 9, 12, 8, 1, 1, 3)
5thJosh Junior - Finn (7, 10, 4, 2, 17, 3, 8, 9, 2, 13)
6thGemma Jones and Jason Saunders - Nacra 17 (2, 2, 14, 1, 3, 13, 2, 6, 2, 10, 13)
20thPaul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox - Men’s 470 (17, 10, 17, 12, 16, DNC, DNC, DNC, 13)

How to follow

NZL Sailing Team daily media releases – sign up here
Yachting New Zealand website news for daily media releases
NZL Sailing Team Facebook for updates and images
Rio Test Event Regatta website for news and results
Race Schedule here
Course Area information

ENDS

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